Rivalry tips back in elder's favor

June 23, 2003|By Philip Hersh, Tribune Olympic sports reporter.

PALO ALTO, Calif. — When Kelli White settled into the blocks for Sunday's 200-meter final at the U.S. Outdoor Track and Field Championships, she already had exorcised the memories of the year-old foot injury that nearly ended her career. A personal-best time while winning the 100 meters Friday made her forget pain that felt as if her right foot were being ripped apart.

What haunted White as she began the 200, her better event, was the memory of having been beaten twice this year by the woman in the next lane, Allyson Felix, who graduated from high school Friday.

The first time it happened, in the 200 final at February's U.S. indoor championships, White, 26, did not even know what Felix looked like until the 17-year-old blew past her. That so disturbed White, 2001 world bronze medalist in the 200, she wrote herself a letter expressing how disappointed she was with herself.

Then White lost again to Felix at Mexico City in May, when the high schooler set a world junior 200 record of 22.11 seconds.

"When you have someone much younger beating you, it's tough, but you have to get over it," White said. "She is talented. I knew she would be a big threat in this race."

The threat--to White, at least--ended seconds after the gun sounded. White's start was so good and Felix's so poor that it took remarkable composure for the teenager to recover and finish third while White ran away from everyone with a personal best of 22.21. Felix, bothered by a sore hamstring, clocked 22.59.

"I wish I had that kind of confidence and talent when I was in high school," White said of Felix. "Even in college, I was so intimidated by the other runners at this meet I barely made the final."

Torri Edwards, runner-up in the 100 and 200, ran 22.45 and will join White and Felix in the 200 meters at the August world championships in Paris. Injury-plagued Richards High School grad LaTasha Jenkins, fourth in the 200 at the 2001 world meet, finished fourth Sunday.

White, who had not won a U.S. outdoor title before this year, now is the acting queen of the sprints in the absence of Marion Jones, expecting her first child next month.

"Without Marion, the rest of us in the race finally get seen, and we're actually getting our due," White said. "I'm sure she is not threatened by any of us and is more worried about starting a family than what we're doing here."

All eyes were on White as she rolled around on the track after the finish, crying tears of joy instead of the tears of pain that came frequently after she tore the plantar fascia, a band of connective tissue in the bottom of the foot, last July in Sweden. White kept vainly trying to compete on the European circuit last summer and said the injury still hurt so much in April it nearly led her to quit.

It was far from the worst trauma White has experienced. She has a thin, scythe-shaped scar running from her forehead around the inside of her left eye from a knife attack by another teenage girl in Union City, Calif., during her junior year of high school.

Friends with White when the attack occurred told her not to look at herself because they could see how much of her scalp had been opened. The doctor, White said, stopped counting stitches after 300.

White asked the paramedics who treated her if she could run the next day. That was out of the question, but she did run in the state high school meet barely a week later.

"I don't regret it happened," White said. "I learned so much from it. I just wish she hadn't cut my face."

Gail Devers, whose resume at 36 includes a stunning list of illnesses, injuries and medals, won her ninth U.S. outdoor title Sunday in the high hurdles. The three-time world hurdles champion and two-time Olympic 100-meter champ also qualified for the U.S. world team in the sprint with a third place Friday.

"It frustrates me to hear people say any old kind of thing about Gail because of her age," said hurdles runner-up Miesha McKelvy-Jones. "What difference does it make if she's 76? This girl is still running."

Devers' national record is more impressive given the quality of her domestic competition. Five of the eight fastest hurdlers in the world last year were from the United States, led by Devers, who says her best is yet to come.

"If I can have half the career Gail has had, it will be fantastic," said third-place finisher Jenny Adams.

John Capel, a 2000 Olympic finalist who then turned to football, continued the resurrection of his track career. Capel, cut by the Bears in 2001 and the Chiefs in 2002, finished second to Darvis Patton's 20.15 in Sunday's 200 meters.

Maurice Greene, 1999 world champion in the 200, pulled out of the final at the insistence of his coach, John Smith. He saw no reason to have Greene risk aggravating tendinitis in his right knee after Greene drew the inside lane, where the torque on the joint is greater. Greene will defend his world title in the 100.